1/1 - Rode up to MRG with friend Dick, leaving Albany at 6:30 AM and
reaching the parking lot at 9:00. Met fellow members of the OC ski club,
who were staying at the Powderhound for New Year's weekend. At 10, met
some OC'ers, along with Eric Friedman and Penny Parson at the flag pole
in front of the lodge. I agreed to give a "mt tour" to the more
advanced/adventuresome OC'ers, and away 7 of us went. Did a warmup from
the top of Quacky. Just below moguled top section, noticed a) woods to
the right looked really nice, b) rest of trail was groomed like velvet,
and c) there was some deep powder right next to the groomed part of the
trail. Dick hopped into it, kicking up clouds of "cold smoke" powder.
HMMM. I hopped into it, and found the snow so light it hardly slowed me
down. WOW!

After a few minutes warming up, we started exploring some of the woods
in the double/birdland areas. The snow everywhere was great, and the
skiing and the sun warmed us up so none of us really noticed the cold.
We wound up doing at least a couple more runs off the double, exploring
various powdery bands. A ride up the single was a little cooler, but a
run down Chute, Upper Liftline and Glades warmed me up again. Back to
the double for some more woods skiing, culminating with my first ever
run down Ice Palace - a band I'd helped cut in the fall. (it's also
refered to as Woodbox, but apparently old timers call it Ice Palace.
After seeing the banks of 50 foot icicles that line the rocky face on
one side of the band, I like "Ice Palace.") I was feeling a bit spent
and ready for lunch by this point, but ran into Eric at the ski racks,
who enticed Dick and I to take "just one more run" before lunch. Back up
we went. Eric suggested Slalom Woods, an area I wasn't familiar with, so
naturally we had to check it out. The skiing was fantastic, but I was
pretty spent by the time we got part of the way down. I wound up
flogging my way down the rest of the way, but made a mental note to
revisit it some time when I'm fresher.

After lunch (some time after 2:30) we did another run off the double as
a warmup, fighting lunch legs and seriously diminished visibility, as it
was starting to snow. We then took the single up, for a run down
Catamount (nice bumps, if you could see them in the flat light), Lynx
and Beaver. I felt great on the latter, which was a pleasant surprise.
I often find the moguls on Beaver kind of awkward, as the fall line
seems to drop off from right to left and the mogul lines seem to reflect
that. Felt fine this time, though. At the bottom of Beaver, I noticed
an unmarked opening in the woods across Bunny, and decided to check it
out. After taking it in a short way, I followed some tracks into the
trees on skier's right, where I hit some deep powder for a few turns
before exiting onto the very bottom of Liftline and cutting right to
follow the trail back to Bunny. Just as I came around the bend, I heard
a crash and saw fellow OC'er Paul tumble into the middle of the trail.
Apparently he went further to the right than I had, and inadvertently
went off a ten foot drop where the trail had been cut into the hill. He
impacted so hard I couldn't see his skis at first. It turned out they
had both embedded into the snow on the edge of the trail and he had
double released forward. Gotta watch out for those sudden drop-offs!
Having drawn some blood (the face plant caused his glasses to cut the
bridge of his nose) and seeing that it was almost 4, we called it a day.

Had in interesting drive through the snow to Ticonderoga, where we spent
the night at Dick's brother's house.

1/2 - On the road at 6:15 AM, arriving at Whiteface around 7:30. Even
at that early hour, there were lots of people around. The weather was
also noticeably warmer than the day before. Went up to the top of the
downhill course, which was in thick fog. Only ways down were Parron's
Run or something's Folly. The fog was so thick it was hard to see
anything. Felt my way down to Excelsior, which was pretty crowded. Did a
couple runs off the upper lift, scouting out possible vantage points for
the race. Spent a couple of runs getting settled in somewhere, each time
to learn the start had been pushed back an hour. Finally, after finding
a great spot near an ESPN camera, learned that the race was postponed to
Saturday. Got to see various women's team members casually cruise down
the course with their race skis on their shoulders, but no way of
knowing who was who.

Did a couple of runs after lunch, but felt more tired than inspired. By
this time it seemed the trails I was skiing on were typical mid-winter
Whiteface, with jagged moguls separated by about 20 feet of ice. One
exception to this was the mogul course, which was still fenced off but
had lots of soft snow between the mogul lines and the fence. Two friends
and I found a way through the fence (the competition had taken place the
day before), and had a sweet run down through the cut up crud. After
that I decided to call it a day.

After such a great day at Mad River, Whiteface was something of a
letdown. Still, it was interesting to see the work that goes into
preparing a downhill course. Next time (and it sounds like there may be
a next time) I hope to actually see a race!